Like Mother, Like Daughter
by watchitstark
Summary: Alice gets her life restored, but a certain someone makes some of her memories get restored too. Alice/Astoria.


**Like Mother, Like Daughter**

**Challenge:** The CrossGen Competition

**Challenger:** lowi

**Pairing:** Alice/Astoria

_**A/N: Okay, so just give me some poetic licence with her mother, kay? Because we don't even have a name for her or whatever.**_

_**This sucks. :P But, I blame it on a weird assed pairing it was. :P**_

The leggy brunette hurried down the hall, sensible shoes not making a sound on the worn carpet. It was a pace that, as a Healer, she was used to. Time was of the essence in this profession, and Healers were never seen taking a leisurely stroll around St Mungo's. She had received some important news, news that she had been waiting to hear for the past four years. Hermione has done it. She had created a potion to help those in the permanent ward of the hospital who has lost their minds. The bushy haired brunette has sent her a Patronus after she had had a reaction out of Alice after having administered her latest attempt to fix the damage caused by the Lestrange's. The Patronus message hadn't detailed what has happened for it to be so urgent, but she figured by how excitable the Patronus form had been that the results were amazingly good.

"What happened?" She demanded as soon as she got onto the ward, and was shocked beyond word to hear an entirely cognizant Alice Longbottom demanding to know where her son was and husband were, while trying to get past Hermione and onto her feet. Astoria went straight to the closest fireplace and floo'd straight into Neville's office, thank heavens he wasn't teaching, and pulled him back through before he could say a word. He stumbled out of the fireplace at the other end and was caught speechless by the sight of his mother calling out his name and demanding to be let out of bed.

"Mum!" He exclaimed tearfully and rushed to her bed, climbing on and pulling her into a fierce bear hug. Tears flowed steadily as he sobbed into his mother's pyjamas, his first real memory of her.

"Neville?"

"Yeah?"

"How much have I missed? I have hazy memories of the past few years, as I have been regaining consciousness, but not a lot between then and being tortured by Bellatrix."

"You don't remember the last 23 years?"

"You're 24? My gosh, you're so old, now."

"I know. I've been an Auror and everything."

"I remember you telling me. I remember how proud I was. I remember how when you told me about everything that Harry had to do, how he told you it could have been you, how I just wanted to wrap you both up in a huge hug and thank you both for saving the world. And thank him for taking the burden off my son's shoulders, however selfish that may be."

"You can meet him if you like. He maybe Head Auror, but I'm sure he'd love to talk to you."

"If you would drag him away from his work at some point?"

"I will." He smiled softly and pulled him mother back into his arms, so glad that he could have her here now.

"Why have I regained consciousness now?" She asked after a moment, her curiosity taking over.

"Hermione's potions finally worked." Her son said with a broad smile, indicating Hermione who was taking notes on a clipboard and looking shy.

"Oh, right, is this the Hermione that I've heard rather a lot of over the past few years? You've often described her as the brightest witch you've ever met?"

"Shush Mum; she doesn't want to hear all that." He said bashfully. His Mother was speaking of the years he had a slight crush on her. He'd been over that for a good decade by now though. Both Hermione and Neville were blushing by this point, so Alice relented. "Thank you, Hermione." She just nodded shyly and went back to scribbling things down. Neville quickly jumped into explaining a lot of the things that he'd been up to over the last few years while Astoria checked over her vitals and relayed it to Hermione, who was quickly scribbling down all she could on her clipboard, then they quickly and quietly slunk out of the room.

Astoria didn't go back to the ward until the end of her shift the next day, as every other Tuesday she wasn't on this ward. She came through the doors to find Alice looking forlornly at Frank.

"You never know, the next batch might work." The dark head flicked up, dark eyes looking into light ones.

"I'm not sure whether I want him to. All my feelings are…. Weird. I mean, I know and remember that I love Frank, but it doesn't feel the same anymore. Maybe it's just because I haven't spoken to him for so long."

"I could talk to Hermione, see if it can change your perception of love or something."

"Thank you." She smiled gratefully, and then looked at Astoria like she was actually seeing her for the first time. "You look vaguely familiar." She cocked her head to the side, thinking hard about whom it could be, but she only came to one conclusion and it couldn't be her, surely.

"Well, you might know my mother? Everyone says we look very alike." Alice's eyes widened.

"Of course." So she had been correct, it was her, but not actually her. "She got married to a man with the name of Greengrass, or something?" She tried desperately to make it sound as though she wasn't overly interested.

"Indeed she did. I'm their second daughter." Alice still looked shocked. "Why are you so surprised?"

"No, it just brings back a lot of memories. Me and you mother were friends for quite a long while in our Hogwarts years, she was a Ravenclaw and I was a Gryffindor but I got along with her better than I did anyone else at that time. Then she got engaged at 15 and I barely saw her again after that."

"She's never mentioned you, not once. Not even when I told her that you'd regained consciousness."

"Yes, well, a lot of things happened. Namely, I fell in love with her. And I have no idea why I just told you that." She looked shocked and tense, ready to metaphorically spring into a defensive position.

"I assume your feelings weren't reciprocated?" She asked carefully.

"What just makes it even worse, is that they were. But she said that she couldn't run away, couldn't be with me, and when she realised it hurt to stay in contact she tore herself away, and I only spoke to her a couple more times in two more years of Hogwarts."

"That's… That's… I don't even know what to say. Why didn't she run? Although, saying that, I don't think that I would have either."

"Because she wasn't a Gryffindor like me, because she didn't know if she could get away. All those reasons and more."

"Why did you end up marrying Frank then?"

"Because my love for him was safe, secure, and I knew that he could never break my heart." Astoria sighed in sympathy.

"This is tough on you while you're recovering, I'm sorry for coming down and making you remember. I'll get myself changed to another ward if you'd like?" Astoria offered, even though she loved this ward, and she wanted to see how Alice progressed, as she felt as though she had been a part of it.

"No, no, it's okay. I know you like this ward, I can tell by how proudly you look around this place. It's okay, after this time I should be okay."

"You may not like this suggestion, but I could bring Mother with me tomorrow, and you can try to sort this out?"

"Ermmm… If she's willing, then I'm prepared to clean out my wardrobe, as it were."

"Isn't the phrase clean out your closet?"

"Is it? These figure of speech things have always confused me."

"You need a lesson in them."

"Most certainly. And I need a more detailed rundown of everything that has happened in the last 23 years."

"I'm not sure that I'm the one to do that, as I'm not sure what to tell you. You should ask Neville, he would love to, and he knows a lot more than I do."

Astoria went back to the place that she had grown up in that night, instead of to her flat as she normally would, to confront her mother about this past lost love with her patient.

"Mum?" She called out as she stepped into the front room of the Manor, which while not as big as the Malfoy's, still fit the description manor better than house.

"In here, darling." Her voice came room the smaller, cosier sitting room, which was her Mother's favourite place to sit.

"I got some news today," she said, nervously, as she stepped into the small room. "From Alice Longbottom." She saw the sudden tension in the set of her mother's shoulders, the lines tightening in her face.

"Oh, and what did she say?"

"She wants to see you."

"Any particular reason?" She tried, desperately, to keep a cool, calm demeanour, but it wasn't happening, she knew that Astoria could see through her, she always had been able to.

"Mum, I know. I know that you had feelings for her, I know you broke her heart."

"Did you know that I broke mine at the same time?"

"Of course, I've always been able to see it in the way that you look at Father, but it wasn't until now that I understand."

"I couldn't stay. You know I couldn't."

"I know, Mum, I know. But why don't you go and make it all okay? Apologise and sort this all out."

"Will it make a difference? It'll just reopen wounds that I've been trying to hide for a long time."

"I think it will. I think it'll help her to heal in the long run, having this weight off her shoulders."

"If you're sure. But, you know, I think that we might just end up rekindling feelings that can't be acted upon."

"Or, you'll bring back that brilliant friendship that you once had. Please, just try Mum. For me."

"I'll be at St Mungo's sometime tomorrow, and I'll send you a Patronus so that you can come and get me, okay?"

"Good." Astoria grinned, kissed her mother on the cheek and then left the room, heading to her flat for a glass of wine and a long bath.

She got the Patronus at lunchtime, and she had already been talking to Alice all day, getting to know her and realising why exactly her mother had fallen in love with her; she had a beautiful personality. She was so funny, and sweet, and maybe a tiny bit clumsy like her son but in a way that was utterly adorable.

"This is Mother. Be prepared. When I come back, she'll be with me."

"It's okay, I've been preparing myself for this for a long time." Astoria nodded gravely and stood up, rushing through the door and navigating the twisting turns and long corridors of St Mungo's. And soon she was coming back, although slower this time, with her mother in tow. And then they were clattering through the double doors into her ward, and Alice was waiting for them, her face hard with determination, but as soon as she saw Astoria's mother she softened immediately.

"Liz." She breathed out softly, shock on her face even though she knew she was coming.

"Alice." She said in reply and stood, frozen, at her bedside, just staring down into dark eyes, so unlike her own. They both recovered after a moment, pulling each other into a hug as Astoria silently left the room.

"You alright?" She asked, hours later, when she came back to the ward after having been taking care of an emergency that needed as many Healers on hand as possible. Alice looked up at her and smiled.

"It was a shock, after all this time, and it brought up some feelings that I'd much prefer to have left alone." She smiled, a little sadly. "But it is time to move on, and I should have realised that when she first said that she couldn't be with me, but I always forcing the issue, trying to make her come back, never thinking about her feelings, never thinking about how hard it must have been for her to say no every time when all she wanted was to say yes."

"It's in the past now." The younger witch smiled and patted her on the arm, soothingly, and she was startled when Alice caught it in midair as she drew back.

"You remind me of her, so much, you know. You seem so innocent, so young, just like she always did. You don't look as though you're twenty, you look like she did when she tearfully asked me to leave and to never look back, when she told me that she could never love me. But now, she's not her anymore, but you are. You are that woman that I used to know, the woman that I fell in love with."

"Alice…"

"Don't worry, I'm not saying I'm falling for you or have feelings or anything, just how about we become friends so I can get to know you as you, not you as her." Astoria smiled and drew her hand out of Alice's light grip.

"I can do that." She said with a smile.

Neither her mother nor Alice would tell her what happened or what they talked about in those hours, but in the next few months Alice got out of St Mungo's, went back to a normal life and Astoria noticed how much more her mother seemed like she was happy, how she didn't eye her husband with contempt and regret anymore. And Alice was amazing. She was so happy, bouncy, almost. She'd had nowhere to go when she got out of hospital, so of course the younger witch let her stay with her, because who was she to say no, and she loved having her around. Getting to know her proved why her mother had fallen in love with her. If the dark haired witch was anything like this in her youth then she could see why someone might have fallen in love with her. As she noticed why someone would fall for her, she found herself doing just that. Which wasn't the best situation she could have hoped for. Alice, on the other hand, found Astoria's similarities to her mother even more startling the more she got to know her, and young Liz and this Astoria were blending into the same image, an image that she was falling for all over again. So when she made a move, to kiss the image that she had made, Astoria let her, even though Astoria had fallen in love with Alice, and Alice had fallen in love with something that wasn't quite Astoria, but at the same time was Astoria. Surely a love like this couldn't last, true love on one side and a love that was almost fake on the other?


End file.
